Life of a School Girl
by The Good Elkin
Summary: A prolog of when Max and Co. are in the School. Max and her friends have grown up in the School, and know no other way of life. But what will happen when that fragile life is threatened? My first story, and I'm trying really hard for it to be good! Give it a try, please! (I really need a better title...)
1. Preface

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. And, although it is written in first-person, I am not Maximum. (James Patterson is.)**

** This story takes place before Angel Experiment. I've tried to get my facts right, but please tell me if anything is really wrong. Also, I am disregarding some of the information given in the books (I'll be more specific when it comes around.)**

** This is just before they are rescued, around four years before Angel Experiment. I might go into the years after they are saved. Not sure yet. Also, this is my first story, so please tell me how I'm doing! Oh, and I'm a horrible speller(I have a bad grudge against any word with a vowel in it,) so forgive me when I fail,(or when spell-check and my brother fail me,) and tell me if I misspell something important a lot. Please review! Thank you! Enjoy!**

**Life of a School Girl**

**Preface**

Hello. I'm Max. My family has told me I need to get this story out; that I can't keep it bottled in any more. I completely, 100%, disagree; but my family is persistent, and they're paying me, so I just couldn't say no.

You should know, before you start reading, it's going to be gruesome, frightening, disgusting, revolting, repulsive, horrific,[redundant,] and happening to a bunch of kids. My life isn't for the faint of heart. My life of when my family and I were living in the School. My life as a School girl. Not just any School, this is a place where-

OK, my family is telling me to stop trying to scare you off. Well, at least I tried...

Anyhoo, I might as well get started. I'm just gonna jump right in there, so try to keep up.

**This was just a preface, that's why it's so short. Next chapter begins the real story! Chapter one is already on here so there's no wait! Read on, my dear reader!**


	2. Chapter 1- The New Kid

**Life of a School Girl**

**Chapter 1- The New Kid**

I hardly recognize that I'm awake, I'm so tired. I ache all over. I don't want to be awake. I open my eyes a crack, and see the whitecoats coming. I shut my eyes tight again and hope this is all just a dream, that they're not really coming, about to start their horrible experiments on me again. I hear them coming closer. I know this isn't a dream, and wonder why I keep hoping. If there is one thing I know with absolute certainty it's this:

There is no life other the one I live.

Every night, not enough sleep; the sounds of the wailing and moaning keeping you awake.

Every morning, the whitecoats coming to wake you up, knowing what they will do to you, reveling in your screams, not caring if it hurts, treating you like a thing, like an _it._

Every day spent eating radioactive food, running through mazes, lying awake on the operating table, having high volts of electricity run through your body, and always smelling the antiseptic smells of the School.

Every day spent hearing the screams and moans and cries of the other "test subjects," trying to block it out, which, sadly, isn't to hard, since that is the constant companion to every memory you have, and will be ringing in your ears for the rest of your life, however long that may be.

Every day looking out the small window in the lab room, just able to see the outside, the sky; knowing you will never breath the fresh air.

Every day cramped in the small cage, hardly able to sit up, much less stand.

Every day spent watching as they poke and prod and cut open and hurt the only people you have ever known, ever cared about.

Every day watching as those around you, everyone around you, are horribly disfigured, maimed, and inevitably die.

Every day wondering when it's your turn to die, when your friends will die.

Every night, before lights-out, trying to comfort each other, knowing it doesn't matter what you say because there is nothing you can really do to help, and for all the words in the world, you can't stop them from doing it again tomorrow.

There is no life other then the School.

A whitecoat knocks on my cage more gently then I'm used to. I open my eyes, and look through the bars to see who it is. It's not a witecoate, it's a little boy, probably just learning how to walk. He looks familiar.

He stares at me with wide eyes, his chubby little hands gripping the bars.

"You're the girl Daddy talks about!"

I look at him, wondering what he means.

"Looks like you've got yourself an admirer, Maximum."

I hear the voice from my left and look around. It's the only friendly whitecoat in School, Jeb.

The little boy notices him too, and runs at him with is arms held wide. "Daddy!" I suddenly realize why this little boy is familiar: he's the shocking image of Jeb, a whitecoat that i've known all my life.

Jeb crouches down and picks up the little boy. He holds him in a close embrace and swings him around. The little boy giggles wildly, even after Jeb stops. Jeb still holds him tight and walks over to me.

"That's right, Ari, this is the girl I told you about. How'd you know?"

The little boy pointed to the plaque on my cage. "By the name-tag! It says "Zero-zero-one-H-A, and you said that was what her home said!"

_Home_? I'd never heard it called that before.

"That's very right! You're very observant." Jeb praised. I could see genuine pride in his eyes.

"Ari?" I asked.

"That's me!" said the little boy. "I'm Ari Batchelder. Nice to meet you!"

"Ari here is going to be staying with us for a while." Jeb explained.

"Hi, I'm Maximum." I introduced myself.

"But no one ever really calls her that. 'Maximum' is such a mouth-full, ya know? We just call her Max, so much easier. And they call me Nudge. I'm not sure where my name came from... But Max got her 'cause she's, like, the best at all things. Like, ya know, the _maximum_. Get it? We were all named by ourselves, and each other. Like little Angel isn't old enough to name herself, so we call her Angel, because she's kinda _angelic_. Get it?" said the girl in the cage next to mine, Nudge. Her dark hair hung in limp curls around her face, which was smeared with grime and dirt and blood, as I'm sure all of our faces were. We only got showers(or, rather, we only got hosed down) once a week or so, if we were lucky.

Nevertheless, her almond eyes shined at the new kid. Nudge was one of the few people who could cheer me up(well, not necessarily cheer me up, but at least make me feel a little less depressed.)

One of the others who could accomplish such a feat was at that moment, shall we say, tooting his horn. The stench emanating from from this loud toot was almost a welcome respite from the stench of the School. _Almost_ being the operative word, as the Gasman's toot was so potent you could almost see the green cloud of smell.

"Whoa- GASMAN! That was DISGUSTING!" Iggy exclaimed. He was shaking his head, his reddish blond hair waving in front of his pale blue eyes. He was obviously trying to look disapproving, but the wide grin on his pale face detracted from the effect.

"Seriously! Where does it come from!?" Fang was waving his hand in front of his nose, trying to clean the air before he could breath again. He accomplished nothing of the sort, only waving his dark hair in front of his dark eyes, still gasping for breath.

The boy in the cage next to Fang suddenly woke up at the smell wafting its way to him. He sat upright, and started gasping for air. "Can't... breath..." he gasped out. Claw couldn't keep up the charade long, though, and soon buckled over laughing, his brown hair swaying as he did so.

I think little Angel is about to start crying, but she just laughs her tiny, adorable laugh.

Ari seamed to pick up on Iggy saying Gasman's name, because he went over to the source of the stench, the little blond-haired bundle that giggled, proud of his horn. "This is Gazzy?" he asked.

"It's the Gasman. I think it's kind of obvious where _his_ name came from." Nudge corrected.

The little stinky blond bundle (and by bundle, I mean almost-three-foot-tall-three-year-old) perfectly imitated Nudge's voice "_It's the Gasman_."

Air giggled even more at this; the Gasman can imitate voices and sounds like nobody's business. "Gazzy!"

Jeb chuckled and walked over to his son. With a half-grin on his face, he responded to his son's joy "Looks like you've got a new friend. Let me introduce you to the rest of the group. You know Maximum already. This over here is Fang, the one with the black hair." As he introduced our little group, he pointed to our cages and little Ari bounced over to them to get a better look.

"This is Iggy, the older blond. That's Nudge, the girl with the dark skin. This is the Gasman-or, rather Gazzy-you know him. This smallest girl, with the blond hair, she's Angel, you know. Angel and Gazzy are the only blood-relatives in this section. And this is Claw, the boy with dark skin. They all are part bird and have wings-all but Claw, who is still undergoing tests to be joined with something different." Jeb concluded.

"They're a flock!" Ari said. We all looked at him, puzzled, until he continued, "Like a flock of birdies, 'cause you all have wings!"

"No, that doesn't work because Claw doesn't have wings. But if it were just me, Max, Fang, Iggy, the Gasman, and Angel, then we could be a flock. Or would it be a gaggle... ? Or if they gave Claw wings! Then that'd work! That'd be really cool! Is that what you're gonna do to him, Jeb, give him wings?" Nudge asked.

"No, we have something different planed for Claw." Jeb answered. Claw looked a little scared at this, but tried to look braver when he noticed we were looking at him. Iggy caught his eye and gave him a reassuring smile.

"So, another day! Time to start work! Come on, let's go." Jeb said, clapping his hands. Instantly, a horde of whitecoats showed up, intent on starting their testing. We all instinctively tried to shrink into the corners of our cages, but we knew it wouldn't work; eventually, we would all have to go through with the tests.

I was surprised when an abnormal amount of whitecoats walked toward Iggy's cage. Jeb noticed where I was looking and answered my unasked question "We need to do some preliminary tests on Iggy for a special experiment we have planed for him later."

He said this with an excited air, but the words coming out of his mouth made my stomach churn with foreboding. Usually when a 'special experiment' is done, the test subject dies.

**So, how'd I do? Not so good, I think; I'm horrible at introducing characters, maybe I added a few to many every's... 1,561 words, not including this lengthy bolded bit. Not sure if that's short or long for me... I don't really have anything to base it on...**

** Kinda depressing, mostly at the beginning. The first time they meet Ari, **_**interesting**_**. You may have noticed he was a lot smarter then the Ari we know. I think that's because the experiments the School did to him seriously messed with his brain.**

** Please tell me how I did! Don't make my beg/bribe for your opinion.**

** Iggy hasn't isn't blind yet, in case you didn't pick up on that. (That's one of the things that I'm disregarding. In Nevermore, a whitecoat said Iggy was only around two years old when they did the surgery, but in a different instance[I think it was School's Out-Forever, but I'm not sure] the flock said they could remember him seeing, and Iggy himself said he could remember seeing. Now, how many of you can remember back to two years old? So I'm not counting that and making it happen when he's nine.)**

** Maximum isn't Maximum Ride yet, because Angel Experiment said she asked Jeb what her last name was, and he told her to pick. It said this happened on her birthday, which she hasn't picked yet. So no freedom, no birthdays, no Ride.**

** Who's this Claw character? What are they going to do to him? Also, what happened to Maxie's sassy attitude? Where **_**does **_**Gasman's gas come from? All this and more is to be revealed in later chapters! Now I need to get this over with so I don't keep editing it... Read on, my dear reader!**


	3. Chapter 2- The Crazies Abound

**Life of a School Girl**

**Chapter 2- The Crazies Abound**

**[I'm really bad at naming stuff…]**

The whitecoats come over to my cage. They unlatch my door and grab my arm to drag me out. They pull me hard, and I stumbled, but Claw, who was also being taken, helped steady me. I get my bearings and have time only to smile my thanks to him before the whitecoats push us off into different directions. In the School we need to stick together, be strong for each other. That's not really one of my strong points, but I try.

Little Ari tried to follow me, but Jeb held him back. "No, son, you stay with me and I'll show you around some more." _Good,_ I thought, _he doesn't want to see this, anyway._

We walk down the halls and corridors, lined with cages upon cages of test subjects. I'm located in Human Hybrid section 3 (They ran out of space in the first 2 sections.) Pretty much, if you can think of it, it's here. Cats with human hands? Yup. Monkey's bodies with giraffe necks and fish heads? Take a right to the aquarium. Human/wolf things? Made on an assembly line, literally. Humans and avians? Your's truly!

I pass some faces I've known for a while. Some faces I should know but can't place because they've been changed and disfigured. Some faces that have been replaced.

We finally reach today's testing room. I recognize it as the room where they test your durability; by that I mean they hit you with something hard, do it some more in a bunch of different places at different levels of force, then check the bruising; then you come back later to see the healing rate.

I grimace at the prospect of this torture, but wordlessly take my place on the stone hard table. As the beatings commence I look around and notice the Gasman going through the same procedure. _How many times do they have to do the _same_ tests!? They have the information they need, don't they!? _I think bitterly to myself. It's not usual that I get angry like that, but something about seeing them hurt the little kid got me enraged.

When the whitecoats looked away for a moment to compare results, I stood up and walked over to Gazzy. He was huddled up, silently crying. I wiped his tears and tried to comfort him. I didn't want to hurt him, but I don't think I did too well with that.

"I know your pain." I crooned. "I know it hurts. I know..." The Gasman just looked at me, and I really _did_ empathize with him.

"What are you _DOING_!" the outraged voice came from behind me. "You're _going_ to mess up our data!" the whitecoat continued. She grabbed me by the arm to move me away so she could 'assess the damage.' That got me even angrier.

"Is that all we are to you? _DATA_!? What about the fact that you're hurting a _THREE-YEAR-OLD_ for this _data_!? Did it never occur to you that it _HURTS_!? What about _this_, does _this_ hurt!?" I outburst without warning, throwing my fist into the face of the whitecoat that had grabbed me. There was a loud snap, a gasp, and a thud as the woman I hit fell. Blood spurted out of her nose like I'd turned on a faucet.

Everyone looked very shocked.

I have to admit, even I was shocked. It was just that something about seeing the Gasman this way made me super protective. I'd just snapped.

The whitecoats got over their shock quickly, and the one nearest the fallen woman knelt by her to see how badly she'd been hurt. Another one got the guards.

_Oh, crap._

I knew I'd pay big for my spell of insanity. Then I felt a small tug on my arm and looked down. The Gasman was hugging my arm "Thank you" he said. I wasn't sure what he was thanking me for; the boat-load of trouble I'd gotten us in? Then I understood: he was thanking me for caring about him, about his feelings, about his pain, and for sticking up for him.

I bent down a little and smoothed back his dirty blond hair. "Any time."

Then the guards came. They all look like perfect men, until they change. We called them Erasers, because they simply erase any rebels; people like me. I understood that just then, little Gazzy was going to see his new hero torn to shreds.

The first Eraser started to turn wolfish, his teeth growing into fangs, huge paws with claws morphing from his hands, hair sprouting all over his body, a muzzle where his mouth should be. He wound back his fist to strike when suddenly a loud commanding voice came from behind him.

"Stop right there!"

It was Jeb. I gaped at him, wondering why he wouldn't just let them get it over with; and by the shocked looks on all of the Eraser's face, I knew they were wondering the same thing, only they were disappointed.

Jeb pushed through the guards and made his way over to me and the Gasman. He put his hand under my chin and looked at the bruises that were just starting to bloom on my face. He tutted, and moved over to the Gasman, evaluating his bruises. He turned with a look of disapproval to the whitecoat and the Erasers.

"Now, what have you done with these two?" Jeb asked, incredulously.

'What have _we_ done? What about what _it's_ done?" Asked the white coat, pointing at me, then to the whitecoat on the floor. "We were just running some standard tests, when this _freak_ started to go crazy! I was just following protocol, calling the guards."

Jeb seemed not to hear what he had said, and continued his own train of thought. "I told everyone _not_ to do any tests on the Human-Avians that would leave marks, didn't I? Your name's Dr. Wilkins, am I correct?" Dr. Wilkins looked stunned and furious, but nodded. "Well, _Wilkins_, _you_ did _not_ follow _my_ orders. That's _very_ bad. _I'm_ head scientist of this group, but _you_ disregarded what _I_ said, and went along with your _own_ testing. _Then_ you were prepared to _kill_ the _most_ successful recombinant life-form we have to cover it up! _You're_ the one at fault! _Now_, you can either get out of my sight _this instant_, and never come back, _or,_ you can feed the guards yourself _for the last time_. Do I make myself clear_?_"

Although Jeb's voice hardly rose, his threats made Wilkins literally wet his pants. He just backed up, wide-eyed, staring at the eraser's yellow fangs and long claws, muttering, "Yes, yes, very clear, sir, crystal clear. I understand, sir. I'm going, sir. Very clear, sir. Never see me again, sir. My mistake, sir. Very clear, sir."

You might think he'd try to put up a defense, but now the Erasers were looking at _him_ with the hungry gleam in their eyes, like _I just _dare_ you to trip._

I gave him a little wave good-bye as he dashed through the door. I could practically see his tail tucked between his legs.

"Now, what are you all standing around for? You have your stations, am I correct? Back to them, everyone. Tata! _Shoo_." Jeb said to the Erasers, waving them away. Then he squatted next to the whitecoat that was injured, still out cold, and the whitecoat helping her.

"Am I right to assume you had nothing to do with all this?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, like, _there are still a few Erasers hanging 'round, if you want me to fetch them..._

The conscious whitecoat's eyes went wide and very round. "Um, no! No, sir! We were- we were just doing what Wilkins told us! Nothing to do with this! Nothing at all! We didn't know about your orders, we-"

"Okay, I get it, enough blathering. Get her to a hospital. Hurry now!" Jeb said. The other whitecoat hoisted up the injured one, and tentatively asked a guard for help.

When they were gone Jeb turned to me and Gasman. I inched away, gripping Gasman's hand, terrified of what he would do to us.

But he just started laughing. He laughed so hard tears rolled down his cheeks. "Did you see the _look_ on his face? Priceless!" His laugh was infectious, and soon we were all laughing from relief. It was like suddenly all the troubles in the world lifted, and we were free.

But it wasn't true. Eventually we quieted down. Jeb looked us over again, and tutted some more. "Those'll take some time to clear up." he thought out loud. "Have the rest of the day off, for healing." he announced. We looked at him, unable to believe what he was saying. We had barley been out for an hour.

"We have a big day tomorrow, you and the rest of the 'flock' need to look good."

At this we were ecstatic. The whole 'flock' stayed in our cages the rest of the day, and at dinner time we got _two_ bowls of food. The food was disgusting, some gray kind of slop as usual, and it made Gasman _stink;_ but it's still food.

They also hosed us down real well, and gave us _towels_ to scrub ourselves with. Whatever was happening tomorrow must be _really_ important.

We were all a little disappointed that Claw wasn't considered a part of the festivities, though. He only got one serving of food, and didn't have the day off. Although the rule of no testing that would leave visable marks seemed to apply.

Also, Iggy didn't seem to be a part of it. He didn't make it back in time for dinner at all. We tried to stay up and wait for him, but Claw and I were the only one to manage it. Outside the tiny window, the sun was just rising when Iggy came back.

The whitecoats shoved him in his cage, and he looked shaken. He stared at me in shock, and I wondered what could have scared him so much.

I scooted closer to his cage, and Claw asked "What's wrong? What did they do to you? What are they _going_ to do to you?" We've all been through some pretty tough stuff, so we wondered what could have possibly scared him so much.

We all had raptor vision, so I could see Iggy almost perfectly in the nearly nonexistent light, and through the bars of our own and Nudge's and Gasman's cages. Iggy, however, could see the best out of all of us, and I knew he _could_ see me perfectly.

He answered my question in barely more than a whisper, I had to lip-read to really understand what he was saying, but what I made out scared me even more then Wilkens was scared of Jeb. I instantly got angry and protective again. Claw sat up straight and practically growled at the prospect of this new horror. The whitecoats were crossing the line _big_ on this one. The whitecoats had never done something of this magnitude before. What he said made my skin crawl like there were billions of ants on each square-millimeter of my skin. I just can't wrap my head around _why_ the whitecoats keep trying these kinds of things; they almost never succeed, and their fails result in disastrous consequences-usually death.

"They're going to operate on my eyes"

**What'd you think? 1903 words, again excluding this bolded bit. **

** At the end, by 'this magnitude,' she meant **_**majorly effecting one of the five senses**_**.**

** Did I build up the suspense a little too much on the eyes bit? You all knew it was coming, so was the lengthy paragraph necessary? Opinions, please!**

** We saw a little of the Max we know, just a glimpse of her potential. Jeb had to save her butt.**

** A few questions answered, but many new ones to be asked. What's so important about tomorrow? Why can't the whitecoats test as usual?**

** Oh, and ages: Claw: 13 Max, Fang, Iggy: 9 Nudge: 6 Gasman: 3 Ari: 2 Angel: 1 Jeb: Adult.**

** By the way, did you think Jeb was a bit out of character? I don't have much to go on, as I don't really remember his personality...**

** Reviews, PLEASE! Again, I don't want to beg, but I will do what's necessary to get reviews! If you liked it, tell me! If I failed horribly, tell me!(Nicely, if you can, though.) If I messed up on anything, I need to know, so tell me! If you read it, but have no emotions, tell me! If you laughed at all, tell me!(No, really, please do. I don't remember trying to be humorous writing this...) If you farted like the Gasman while reading this, keep it to yourself, but tell me you read it!(OK, maybe I lied about not trying to be funny...) If you want more, tell me! TELL ME EVERYTHING!**

** Dawn is coming, a new day approaches, and there are many questions to be answered. The next chapter is on its way. Read on, my dear reader!**


	4. Chapter 3- The Big Day

**Life of a School Girl**  
**Chapter 3- The Big Day**

I stare at Iggy, shocked. Iggy didn't seem to be in the mood to talk after his confession. He faked a yawn and turned away from me. I knew he wasn't asleep-he was staring out the small lab window, wondering how much longer he'd be able to see the outside.

I looked at Claw, and saw my own shock and horror reflected in his eyes. Suddenly, I realized he wasn't afraid just for Iggy, but for himself as well.

"They told you what they're going to do to you, didn't they." I whispered to him.

He looked at he. "Well, they didn't tell me... I just kind of guessed."

"Well?" I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but I think it'd be best if he felt he could confide in someone.

"Well, I was thinking the other day, why have they just been experimenting on me for such a long time? Why didn't they do it years ago, or at birth, like you. Then, it hit me. It mush be something brand new, so I thought-"

He got cut short when we shrunk into the corners of our cages because the door to the lab had slammed open.

"Dr. Janssen is going to be streaming this _live_!" said an angry whitecoat.

"I know that! I set up this whole operation. But it's the crack of dawn, our scientist need some rest, and so do the subjects."

"I couldn't care _less_ about how much sleep those little freaks need! I think you're getting a little to attached to these mutants. It's afternoon where she is, and she's expecting to see what's happening. This experiment happens either _now_, or _never_! You know she's only a step away from being head! And I, personally, would like to see what the boss thinks about our work here! I'd rather at least _try_ to get a promotion then lose my job because some mutant _needed more sleep_! So, this test is happening _NOW_!"

The whitecoat stormed down the hallway, Jeb hot on his heels.

"The surgery won't be as successful if the subject's eye's are blood-shot. His eyes need rest! And we can't very well perform the surgery when the _surgeons_ are tired, too! We all need rest. Couldn't this wait until tomorrow?" Jeb tried to reason with him.

"This operation is proceeding- whether you're behind the knife, or not!" the whitecoat yelled, twirling around to face Jeb. "You're so attached to the freaks, so I thought you would be more then happy to perform the surgery, but if you aren't up to the task, I'll get someone else to do it. But this is happening _now_." I could tell Jeb wasn't happy with the arrangement, but he stopped arguing.

_They're talking about Iggy._ I thought to myself. _And probably Claw. They're going to operate on them _now_? _

The whitecoat and Jeb finally came into view, and Jeb really did look exhausted.

The whitecoat continued griping "And, don't forget, the IHL scientists will be here as well. We'll want to show them were just as good as they are; the only reason they have a better success rate is because they get better assignments..."

The whitecoat kept mumbling to himself, something about the IHL. I didn't care much about the School's competition, but I did care about what they were going to do to Iggy and Claw.

Also, I was appalled at the thought that _Jeb_ would be the one operating on my friends.

Iggy had stiffened up when the whitecoats had entered, and was now trying to squish himself into the corner of his cage. I noticed that Claw too seemed to be afraid. This whole situation got me seriously angry.

As the whitecoats stopped in front of our cages, I sat up and spat at them "What are you doing? I swear, if you hurt any of my family, I will _personally_ skin you."

The whitecoat took no notice of me, and called a few guards over: Jeb looked at me momentarily with a sympathetic look in his eyes, the turned away.

That's when I noticed little Ari hanging onto his father's leg, staring at me with wide eyes. _What's he doing here?_ I thought, bitterly. _And why's he so interested in us_? He'd been hanging around our cages all day yesterday. _He's free, not in a cage, and he has Jeb as his father. He can do whatever he wants. Why's he care about us?_

I suddenly stopped my train of though. Was I _complaining_? That was so unlike me. Like I said before, there is no life for me, other then the one I live. The one here, in a too-small cage, being experimented on, never getting enough food...

I look over to little Angel, and the Gasman. _This is no life. This isn't the life I want for the little ones._

I was starting to feel... _rebellious_? That wasn't good. Rebellion never got anyone anywhere; it only got people hurt- people _killed_.

The guards came over, and put our cages onto a large push-platform. Me, Iggy, Claw, Fang, Nudge, Gasman, little Angel. As they put Angel's cage on top of mine, they swung it viciously, making tiny Angel fly in her cage. _My baby_! Angel instantly started crying.

Seeing Angle like this made my blood boil. I glared at the whitecoats, the Erasers, and especially Ari. He just looked at Angel like everyone else; like an experiment gone wrong.

I stroked Angel's hair with one finger trough the bars. _It's OK, love. It'll all be OK. I don't know how, but I promise I'll make it OK. I thought silent thoughts to her, like I'd comforted Gasman._

I don't know how it worked, but Angel quieted down, and looked right into my brown eyes with her deep blue ones. It was like she knew what I was thinking. That I was thinking comforting thoughts; however strange that sounds.

The Erasers pushed us down the hall. We rolled along for several minutes until we got to a large conference room, with a two windows showing two different operation labs on opposite walls, and a large screen on the opposite wall to the door we'd come through. A square, high-tech-looking table with a bunch of buttons in the middle also sat in the room, with many whitecoats sitting in chairs around it. When we rolled in, all the whitecoats stopped talking and stared at us in interest.

"Are these your 'successful recombinants?' They look a bit scrawny, don't you think?" one whitecoat spoke up. All the others laughed.

"That's right. They do _look_ scrawny, but they're more powerful then all of us put together." Jeb said gesturing to to all the whitecoats. "Maximum, why don't you get out and show them?" Jeb said, turning to me.

I just stared at him, wondering what he meant. Then he unlatched my cage and held out my his hand to help me out. I still didn't quite understand what he wanted me to do, then he whispered in my ear "Extend you wings, Max. All the way."

I was standing in the room, and there was several arms-length on either side. I stretched my wings to their full extent for maybe the first time in my life.

They stretch from their accordion-style scrunched up hiding place. They just keep expanding, and expanding, until my wings were fully stretched. My wing-span was around ten feet long. I ruffled my feathers a little, and I stretched the muscle. They were incredibly stiff from being stuffed up against my back for the last nine years.

All the whitecoats gaped at me. I felt rather uncomfortable with them all looking at me like that.

Then they started applauding. They turned to Jeb and clapped for _him_. Like _he_ was the one with wings sprouting out _his_ back.

The the large screen on the side wall turned on, and loud static filled the view.

A voice came from the screen. "Sorry, there's a bad storm on my end, I can see what you're doing, but you can only hear me. Very impressive avian recombinant, Dr. Batchelder."

Jeb took a little bow and herded me back in my cage. Then he took a little step up, and started a little speech.

"What you just saw was one of the six Avian-Human recombinants I- we have been successful in creating. That particular specimen, who calls herself 'Maximum,' has survived nine years. The others are of varying ages between nine and infancy.

"They are all only two percent avian out of ninety-eight percent human. This two percent, however, effects every part of the subjects' body. Obviously, the wings are non-human. Although classified mammal, the subjects have air-sacks, which would help the subject breath when high up in the thin atmosphere. They're bones are porous and hollow; light bones lowers they're body weight significantly, which would prove to let the subject hold itself up in the air. They're red blood cells contain nuclei..."

Jeb rambled on, speaking about us, but I missed most of what he said after the blood thing, because at that moment several of the whitecoats motioned to some guards, who moved over to where the our cages were stacked. They grabbed Iggy's and Claw's cages and carried them away.

"HEY! Bring them back!" I shouted, throwing myself at the side of the cage. They were taking away my friends-no, my _family_.

All the whitecoats stopped listening to Jeb and stared at me. Jeb looked furiously at me.

"Yes, well, as I was about to say, these Avian-Humans seem to form strong bonds within their 'flock.'" Jeb tried to make a quick cover-up.

"You're darn right we form strong bonds! NOW GIVE THEM BACK!" I screamed, slamming myself harder into the bars. I throw myself so hard, I almost bend the bars.

Little Gasman started chanting "GIVE THEM BACK!" in my voice, and tiny Angel started crying louder then ever. Fang growled at the Erasers holding Iggy's and Claw's cages. Iggy and Claw then started throwing themselves at the sides of their cages, knocking them around enough to make the guards drop them.

Then Gasman let rip a blow the made a lot of the morphed Erasers pass-out cold. The whitecoats should have seriously reconsidered enhancing their noses.

"Stop struggling, you little runts!" yelled one of the luckily un-morphed Erasers. We all ignored him, and kept on struggling.

The whitecoats who made the cage had obviously misjudged the strength of an angry bird kid. I suddenly broke my way out of the cage. "HA!" I yelled, and flung myself at Iggy's cage, which was closer then Claw's. I almost got to it, when a sharp pain erupted in my neck.

I fell to my knees, and put my hand where the pain had started. I pulled out a tranquilizing dart.

My sight started to go fuzzy, and I had to prop myself up with one hand. I tried desperately to crawl my way to Iggy's cage. I put my hand on the side, but didn't have the strength to get to the other side, where the latch was.

Iggy put his hand where mine was.

"I'm sorry. I failed. I'm so sorry..." was all I managed before my mouth stopped working.

As I face-planted Iggy's cage, the last thing I though before darkness chomped down hard on my brain was _I'm sorry, Angel. I can't make it OK..._

**_Uuuuuuuggggghhhhh_****, I ****_hate_**** writing dramatic endings. I'm so ****_bad_**** at it!**

**But what did you think about my dramatic antics? Did you cry? If so, you might want to find some tissues... And review! Did you laugh? If so, you have a twisted sense of humor... But you should review in your twisted way! Do you think you know what the whitecoats will do to Claw? If so, you're more creative then I am, 'cuz it took me forever to decide what to do... So, you should review with all of your creativeness! I beg too much... If you agree, or even disagree, REVEIW!**

**And, just so you know, the person watching from the screen was the Director, but I couldn't mention her directly, because they can't find out about her 'till Angel Experiment. Also, the IHL means 'Institute for Higher Living,' or simply, the 'Institute.' I couldn't refer to it directly because the same reason I couldn't with the Director. Also, the way I envisioned it was that the School and the Institute both are branches off of Itex, and that they kind of compete in a not-so-friendly way with who can do better with experiments. The School was pressed to experiment on Iggy and Claw ahead of schedule due to the arrival of some of their whitecoats, because it wanted to impress the Institute and show them a good show. That, and the fact that they are just complete losers, incorporated to the result of Iggy going blind and Claw- wait, nope! Sorry, gotta stop there. No spoilers! But sorry if I confused you with the School/Institute situation... If I did, you should review!**

**Also, I know that in the Angel Experiment, when the flock went to the Institute, they found another bird-kid, about 10 years old. For the sake of this story, that bid-kid was genetically enhanced to age quicker/look older. Just 'cause it works with this fanfic better, and they never said otherwise.**

**So, what are they going to do to Claw? Will he even survive? Will Iggy still have his sight after the experiment?(That one should be obvious for any who have read the books) Will they ever get out of the horrible School?(Again, obvious) When will they get out? **

**Well, that's the end of this chapter. Next chapter will be in several different perspectives. I'm gonna do my best, but no promises. Read on, my dear reader!**


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